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Even at the head office of some of the largest companies in the world they do stupid things like: Pink tuesday, every employee must wear pink. Greeting day, you need to say hello and shake hand with all you meet at the office. Salute day, where you need to salute everybody... and so on...

"It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be."

No thank you, my Nordic friend!

Though I could not caution all I still might warn a few; Don't raise your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools. - Robert Hunter

My response is kind of predictable. Were you and your co-workers afforded an opportunity to vote on whether they wished to participate in this nonsense?
It's nice that your life is so pleasant. Not everyone works in such an atmosphere.

I just couldn't leave it alone. Have you ever had to sit in room and listen to some clown who was promoted to be your superior, whether or not he/she was worthless on the shop floor, because he/she was a relative, or otherwise sucked up to his/her superior, and propose some inane scheme to enhance productivity?
"Pink Tuesday"? Give me a xxxxing break.
There is little actual meritocracy in any industry, and even if there were, by what right would management presume to order workers to dress pink? Only in a workplace where no person had any balls.

Fun at workplace makes a huge difference at the bottom line. 66% better bottom line in some cases.

I feel a lot of you guys are angry here, and not willing to have fun. Are you robots?
Im going to have a speech next week, with 300 people listening about a project Ive been running. Its a huge success, and thats because of the fun we had on hour way. In my presentation; Im showing a pic of my dogs. You know the success for us? And have in mind, we are totally different, we don't speak the same language, but we want to succeed. We have fun everyday, when Im at work I look forward to come home to my happy dogs. I truly believe dog owners have a more happy life than those who don't have dogs. Imagine having fun at workplace. WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT WILL MAKE.

My dogs love when I do crazy stuff, they get involved and we laugh together. Do something different - have fun!!

Robots have jobs. Lots of Americans do not.
That said, I'm trading in my cat for a dog.
Kind of too bad. My cat likes to sit on my Marko cutting board, so I use her whiskers to test my knives for sharpness.

You Norsk people seem to be happy which surprises me because all your fellow nordic people from Finland that I ever met were usually suicidal but as a fellow European, I have to say that even in a sunny paradise like Hawaii, this would not fly. There ase just too many people here that are totally self-absorbed and don't give a $);() about the work athmosphere as long as they get their pay check. Even as a misantropic and slightly dysthymic German I miss the good work relationship I had with my colleages before I came out here. Of course, the fish stinks from the head down, and if your boss is an ($&hole, the best attempts to improve the morale in the department are difficult and tedious.

Ok...there's nothing wrong with fun in the workplace. It does build camaraderie. Anyone who has worked in a pro kitchen will tell you that it's essential to get through those long days that never seem to end.
It cannot and should not be mandated by management and scripted by some contracted 'expert'. It has to be spontaneous and generated from within the group, and allowed to take on the flavor of the participants. It shouldn't be exclusionary, and there will always be someone who opts out of participation or will attempt to suppress or even ban it to further their own agenda. BUT, all it takes is one d0uchebag to run to HR and complain that they're being harassed...then the thought police come, lockdown the operation, and send all involved to Room 101 for behavior modification.

Again, coming from decades in pro kitchens, I can say that we chefs, cooks, and other BOH workers engage in some 'normal' workplace humor that would get us fired in the sterile corporate world. I think it makes us more cohesive because we can go a little beyond the pale.

Though I could not caution all I still might warn a few; Don't raise your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools. - Robert Hunter

OK, here we go.
My father taught me to take pride in my work. He especially cautioned me against letting my antipathy for a boss affect the quality of my work. He was right, and I have lived by that advice.
I am tired of having to take orders from supervisors who know nothing. I am tired of having to be polite to cops who were in diapers when I got my license. I am tired of real estate agents. And I am especially tired of corporate cheerleaders. Fortunately, for me, at the age of 61, I am no longer subjected to such indignities (except for a run-in with the occasional doughnut boy).
Get a job, do a job.
Capitalism in America isn't "make a good knife, sell a good knife". It's as much a dogma as was communism in Russia. When you see some ******* driving down the street in a 500 series Mercedes, it's not because he earned it.
Of course, this kind of thinking is antithetical to the sale of Kramer knives for $20K+ . .

We play a little game called "Name That Band". Once service starts we turn on the radio and I pick someone to name a band. Every time a song is played by that band we all drink. As you can imagine there's a lot of peer pressure when picking a band. Sometimes I'll put on the country station and ask Julio to name the band, all he knows is the Beatles.